


Blupjeans Unsolved Supernatural: Miller Labs

by kellysaur



Series: Blupjeans Unsolved Supernatural [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Brief No-3113 mention, Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, F/M, Ghosts, I killed Lucas Miller, Miller Labs, buzzfeed unsolved au, kind of, lots of banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 18:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21378958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kellysaur/pseuds/kellysaur
Summary: Barry clears his throat. “Uh, welcome back to another episode of Unsolved: Supernatural. I’m Barry, and this is Lup—” Lup waves with a lazy smile, and Barry continues. “—And today we are going to be exploring the infamous Miller Labs.”
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans & Taako, Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Series: Blupjeans Unsolved Supernatural [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650238
Comments: 5
Kudos: 60





	Blupjeans Unsolved Supernatural: Miller Labs

Lup leans against the faded concrete sign, her hands resting in the pockets of her leather jacket. Besides her, Barry is rigid, tense. He adjusts the straps of his backpack.

Taako looks through the camera lens and hums. “Well, at least one of you doesn’t look too bad.”

“Come on, Koko,” Lup huffs, “Be nice to Barry.”

Taako keeps staring into the camera, making minute adjustments to the settings. “Hm? Oh, I am. Barry looks fine.”

Barry flashes an uneasy smile and chuckles quietly. Lup wrinkles her nose. “You’re an asshole.”

“Mhm. Takes one to know one.” Taako turns a knob one more time, then flashes the other two a thumbs up.

Barry clears his throat. “Uh, welcome back to another episode of Unsolved: Supernatural. I’m Barry, and this is Lup—” Lup waves with a lazy smile, and Barry continues. “—And today we are going to be exploring the infamous Miller Labs.” 

Taako moves the camera off them to take in the dark building, and Lup reaches out for Barry’s hand. “You good, Barold?” She whispers, quiet enough that their mics won’t pick them up.

He nods, swallowing a lump in his throat. “What? Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Ready to get this over with.” 

She pecks him on the cheek and starts pulling him to the building’s glass doors and back in front of the camera. “I dunno why you’re so scared, Bluejeans. You’ve got, like, a million PhDs. You’re a smart man. There’s no reason for you to even _believe_ in this horse shit.” 

“It’s not horse shit, Lup,” Barry objects, throwing back a nervous glance to the camera as he’s tugged onto a concrete pathway, “There’s _evidence._ I don’t know how you _don’t_ believe in it!”

“Cause I have yet to see any evidence that’s actually conclusive, babe. There’s always another explanation.”

They stop in front of the dark entrance. It’s nighttime, and the only light source is the flashlights the two of them switch on. The building doesn’t seem to be in any state of disarray; the windows are clean and there are no signs of dust or abandonment. A sign on the door reads “Miller Labs Haunted Tours: Open from 8pm to 11pm daily.”

“Wow,” Lup hums, “A tourist trap. Real spooky.” 

“Let’s just go inside, okay?” Barry holds the door open for Lup and then steps inside behind her. 

They find themselves in a narrow hallway with concrete floors and metal walls, with Taako close behind them. Lup shines her flashlight all around the room, searching for anything of interest. Barry, on the other hand, keeps his light trained straight ahead. 

Lup’s light shines off a picture frame and she stops abruptly to examine it—Barry and Taako barely avoid bumping into her. 

“So, this must be the Miller family or whatever, right?” She shines her light so they can all get a better look: a mother and her adult son, smiling brightly and donning matching lab coats.

“Uh, yeah, looks like it. Maureen and Lucas Miller.”

Lup nods. “Why do you think the picture’s in black and white?”

Barry frowns. “What?”

“This was the eighties, right? They _defs_ had colored photos in the eighties.”

“Um, maybe it just—”

“They’re leaning too hard into this ‘spooky’ thing, babe. I’m telling you. I’m not impressed.”

Barry snorts. “You haven’t even seen anything yet. Can we just go sit down somewhere so I can get into the history of this place?”

“Sure, sure.” 

They push through a door at the end of the narrow hallway and find themselves in an atrium. The full moon shines through the glass dome above them. Lup and Barry carry a bench to the middle of the room and settle down. As Taako gets the camera set up, Lup leans comfortably against Barry.

Taako signals that the camera is rolling, and Barry begins:

“Located on the outskirts of Duxbury, Massachusetts, Miller Labs has been the subject of dark rumors since it first opened its doors in nineteen seventy-eight. Locals claimed the Millers were performing all sorts of experiments: from mind control to artificial intelligence. But these rumors aren’t the reason Miller Labs is so terrifying. 

“In nineteen eighty-six, Maureen Miller died under mysterious circumstances. There are many theories about how she died, but the most common theory is that she was performing an experiment on herself when something went horribly wrong. The—”

Lup purses her lips and furrows her brow. “Do people have reason to believe that? Or is it just the spookiest scariest thing they could think of?”

“If you—”

“I think it was a killer clown,” Lup offers. “Those are scary. Oh! Or maybe aliens. Bigfoot?”

Barry tries and fails to look irritated, fighting off a smile. “I was just about to say why, if you’re ready to listen.”

“Sure, go ahead.” Lup shifts until she’s laying on the bench, with her head on Barry’s lap. 

“Anyways, a thorough autopsy revealed that her body was in perfect condition. There was nothing wrong with her. And she was only in her fifties. It seemed like she just… stopped living.” 

“That’s what dying is, yeah.”

Barry scowls at her, and she sticks her tongue out at him in response. From behind the camera, Taako snickers.

“But when Maureen Miller died, it’s said that her son Lucas went mad with grief. Some say he turned to necromancy and dark rituals in a desperate attempt to get his mother back. Many now believe that Miller Labs is haunted by all the spirits and demons Lucas Miller invited in with these rituals.”

Lup yawns loudly and dramatically, pats Barry’s cheek, and climbs to her feet. “Alright, babe. Time to get this show on the road. I wanna see some spooky boys.” 

Barry stands up with a sigh. “I, uh, bet ghosts don’t love being called that, Lup.” 

“You know what, Barold? I don’t care what the ghosts think. If they’ve got a problem, they can tell me themselves.” She turns from Barry to shout, “Isn’t that right, spooky boys?”

Her voice bounces off the walls, but beyond that the room stays silent. Lup shrugs. “Seems to me they don’t mind too much.”

Barry shakes his head and steps in front of her to lead the way. With Taako trailing behind, they make their way to one of two heavy metal doors. Etched into it is the word “HODGEPODGE.” With a grunt, Barry pulls it open and motions for the other two to step inside. 

This room is a stark difference from the open atrium. It’s scarcely bigger than a broom closet, with no windows and a high-vaulted ceiling. Another heavy door sits directly across from the one they just stepped through. In the center of the room sits a round platform. 

Deep scorch marks mar the ground like a sunburst, with the platform at the center. The burns make their ways halfway up the walls. 

Lup whistles. “What the hell happened in here?” 

Barry shrugs. “We don’t know. No one’s found any records on it. There are theories that Lucas Miller tested his robots in this room, but no one knows for sure.”

Lup snorts. “Robots? You didn’t mention fuckin’ robots, Bluejeans!”

He laughs awkwardly. “Yeah, uh… You’ll see. I’ll explain later.” 

“I’m excited now! I don’t care about ghosts, but _robots?_ Now we’re getting into that sci-fi shit!” 

Barry rubs the back of his neck. “You wanna keep going, then?”

“_Fuck_ yeah, I do!” Lup climbs onto the platform and jumps off the other side. Then, she tugs the door open and looks back at Barry and Taako. “You coming?”

Barry carefully steps around the platform and slowly makes his way through the entranceway. They find themselves in a short hallway, with two doors in front of them. Barry steps towards the door labeled “HUGBEARS.”

Lup throws an unamused glance at the camera. “What the fuck is a hugbear?”

“It might be the codename for the mind control experiment,” Barry offers, grunting as he tugs open the heavy door. “It’s believed this is where the, uh, subjects of these alleged experiments were kept.” 

Lup throws an unamused glance at Taako, who rolls his eyes in response. “Right. The _mind control._ What’s the evidence to back that one up again, babe?”

Barry pauses in the doorway. “Apparently, when the Millers first built this lab, they hired some locals to help with housekeeping and stuff. No one saw them for years and they never seemed to leave the lab. And when they finally showed up in town again, their personalities were the reverse of what they had been.”

“So, where are they?”

Barry frowns. “What?”

“This was in the eighties, right?” Lup rests a hand on her cocked hip. “That was recent enough that I bet at least one of them is still around, unless they were all ancient. So where are they?”

Barry flinches. “We, uh, don’t have names.” 

“Oh, we don’t? Some people had their personalities wiped, and we have no idea who they were? No one followed up with them? The government didn’t want in on that?”

“I mean, one theory is that the government—” 

“No, you can’t back up your theory with another theory. You have like seventeen degrees, Dr. Bluejeans. You know better.” 

“I don’t have…” Barry sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Look, Lup. I’m just sharing the information I’ve gathered. I’m not saying I believe in _all_ of it.”

“But you believe in most of it,” Lup hums back. 

“Uh… Maybe not most of it. Some of it, for sure. The stuff with proof.”

“Proof is a strong word. You mean circumstantial evidence.” 

“Agree to disagree, I guess.” Barry motions for her to step through the door. “Ladies first.”

“Always the gentleman.” With her back to the camera, Lup flashes Barry a crooked grin before obediently leading the way into the next room. She waits for the others to join her before she begins shining her light around the room. 

And then she laughs.

“This is the spooky mind control room? _This?”_

Her flashlight illuminates a plush green couch, then trails down to a colorful woven rug. 

Barry shifts his weight. “I mean… I think that makes it spookier? That it looks so normal but had such a sinister purpose.”

“Babe? This is a break room.” 

He chuckles. “Okay, yeah, this is just a break room.”

“Cool, cool. We ready to keep going? Don’t think there’s much for us in here.” 

Taako groans. “You don’t wanna take a quick break? This camera’s not carrying itself, y’know.” 

Lup is already on her way to the other end of the room. “Nah, I think we’re good. We’re on a time crunch.”

“Well fuck me, I guess,” Taako grumbles.

Barry flashes a sympathetic smile as Taako stomps past him. 

They exit the breakroom to find another small hallway, and Barry points towards one of the doors in front of them. Unlike the others they’ve passed through, this door is unlabeled. 

“Okay, so this next one is where things actually start to get spooky. Let’s go inside and you’ll see what I mean.” 

Even though she looks skeptical, Lup opens the door and steps inside. Taako moves to follow her, but Barry holds up a hand, motioning for him to wait. 

Sure enough, after a short moment passes, Lup calls back, “Get in here, doofuses! This place is cool as hell!” 

They enter to find another room with metal walls and a concrete floor. It’s filled with various metal tables and workbenches and shelves. 

Broken mechanisms cover every visible surface. 

Lup shines her flashlight on one of these machines. “Do you see that? That’s a face. These are robots. What the fuck did that Miller guy need so many robots for?”

“Remember how I said Lucas Miller went mad with grief when his mother died?” Barry gingerly steps over a robot corpse and makes his way to the center of the room. “We think he might’ve been trying to create a host body for her, so he could bring her back from the dead. So, it’s believed that these robots may have souls attached to them—souls that Lucas Miller pulled from the afterlife for his experiments.” He shrugs his bag off his shoulder and begins to rifle through it. 

“I think he was fuckin’ them,” Taako counters. “Can I say that?”

Barry and Lup both freeze, then turn to face him slowly with equally shocked expressions. 

“What?” Barry blinks back his surprise. “Taako, you can’t—” 

“No,” Lup nods, “I’m with Taako. I think he was fucking the robots.” 

“Unbelievable.” Barry finally finds what he’s looking for and pulls it from his bag. It looks almost like a chunky MP3 player, with a small screen and a few silver buttons. As he turns it on, he runs through a quick explanation for their audience. “This is an audio recorder. It runs through a bunch of different radio frequencies at a fast pace, which some people believe gives spirits the energy they need to communicate with us. It’s sweeping through the frequencies so quickly that we shouldn’t be able to hear regular radio stations, so any words we hear are theoretically from the spirits we’re trying to find.” 

“And,” Lup adds brightly, “It’s a bunch of bullshit.” 

“And Lup thinks it’s a bunch of bullshit,” Barry sighs. 

He flips the recorder on; an almost deafening static bounces off the walls. “Alright. Uh, if there’s anyone in here that wants to be heard, we’re here, and we’re listening.”

Nothing happens. 

Lup clears her throat. “I’m gonna try.” 

“Oh, gods, Lup. Please—” 

“Hey!” She claps her hands together and yells into empty space. “Hey, ghosts! You gonna talk to us, or are you too scared?” 

There’s still no response, and so she tries again. 

“We got a bunch of weak-ass ghosts in here, huh? Just a whole lotta dead wiener boys? Fuck you, ghosts. I’m not scared of you. And neither is Barold. Right, Barold?”

“Uh, no. Don’t listen to her. That’s not true.” 

The static is interrupted by… something. 

Barry goes pale. “Did you hear that?”

Lup shakes her head. 

“Okay, I’m gonna replay it. Listen.” He hits a few buttons, and the sound plays again. “I think it’s saying ‘Noelle.’”

“What? No way. That’s definitely ‘go to hell.’ Miller Labs has rude ghosts.”

“I’m gonna… I’m gonna play it again. Taako, you tell us what you hear, okay?” Barry rewinds the recorder, and the garbled sound echoes a third time. 

Taako looks thoughtful for a moment. Then, with a solemn nod, he says, “I think it’s saying Taco Bell.” 

Lup narrows her eyes. “That’s dumb.” 

Taako blows a raspberry at her. “_You’re_ dumb.” 

“Okay, well, uh… Let’s… keep going?” Barry tucks the recorder back in his bag. “Noelle, if you’re listening, I’m sorry Lup and Taako are being so rude to you. They don’t mean you any harm, I promise.” 

“He doesn’t know that! If you’re real, prove it! Come and fight me or something! I’m ready!” Lup waves her middle finger around aimlessly. Barry grabs her other arm and tugs her towards the exit. Taako follows with a shrug, carefully stepping around the broken machines. 

Barry pulls Lup into another foyer, and she groans. “Okay, can we just take a second to reflect on how _horribly_ this building was designed? Why didn’t they make one big fuckin’ hallway? Why do I have to go through the break room to get to the robot room? What if I wasn’t in the mood to talk to my employees? This is worse than the Winchester House we went to, and that place’s whole _thing_ is being badly built.” __

_ _“I really can’t argue with that one.” Barry releases his hold on her and walks over to the next door, labeled COSMOSCOPE. He knocks on it, and the metal rings out hollowly in response. “But anyways, this is the last room on our tour, and it’s the place in the building with the darkest history surrounding it.”_ _

_ _He pulls the door open and leans against it. “This is the room where Maureen Miller was found dead. And, less than a decade later, the body of her son was discovered here, as well. And, just like his mother, no one could discern how he died. It’s said that both of their spirits haunt this very space, and guests have reported chills, shadows, and disembodied whispers.” _ _

_ _He turns around and hesitates. Lup lays a hand on his shoulder and gives it a comforting—but discreet—squeeze before she pushes him forward. “You’re blocking the way, babe.” _ _

_ _As soon as he steps through the threshold, Barry wraps his arms around himself. “Gods, do you feel that energy in here? If you believe in this stuff or not, you’ve gotta feel that shift.”_ _

_ _“Nope.” Lup meanders around the room. There doesn’t seem to be much in here: a table bolted to the ground, and a large round mirror against one wall. Her light flashes off its surface and bounces back blue. “Hey, babe? What’s this?” _ _

_ _Barry scoots away from it. “That’s a perfectly round mirror made out of a synthetically grown sapphire. It’s said that it’s a window to the Astral Plane, and if you look into it, you’ll see Death himself.”_ _

_ _Taako hums. “D’you think he’s hot?”_ _

_ _Barry’s brow furrows. “Do I… Do I think _who’s_ hot?”_ _

_ _Taako scoffs, as if the answer is obvious. “Death. D’you think Death is hot?”_ _

_ _Lup’s wide grin returns. “You could check for yourself, Koko. Go take a look.”_ _

_ _“You know what? I will.” Taako, camera still resting on his shoulder, steps forward to stare into the mirror. The camera picks up his shift in expression as disappointment registers on his face. “Damn. Nothing.” _ _

_ _“I mean, I could’ve told you that, dummy.” _ _

_ _“Yeah,” Taako sighs, “But a guy can hope, y’know?” _ _

_ _Then, he strides over to the table and sets down the camera. _ _

_ _Barry takes another step away from the mirror. “Um, Taako? What are you doing?”_ _

_ _“Well,” Taako answers with his usual nonchalance, “I assumed this was where you were gonna do your lock-in, if this is the scariest room in the place. Was I wrong?” He adjusts the camera angle. _ _

_ _Barry opens his mouth to object, but Lup speaks first. “Nope, makes sense to me. Who’s gonna go first, babe?” _ _

_ _“You?” he buries his face in his hands. “I cannot even _begin_ to tell you how much I don’t wanna do this.”_ _

_ _“It’ll be fine, don’t worry. Just two minutes in the dark by yourself. Nothing to worry about.”_ _

_ _“_Two_ minutes?”_ _

_ _“Yeah. Sixty seconds is nothing. Gotta go one-twenty for sure.”_ _

_ _Taako steps away from the camera, apparently satisfied enough with his set-up. “Okay, Lulu. You’re good to go. Once we get out there and you turn off your light, we’ll start the count down.” _ _

_ _She flashes them a big thumbs up on their way out. Taako closes the door securely behind them, and Lup turns off her flashlight. _ _

_ _“Starting the clock,” Taako’s muffled voice calls through the door. _ _

_ _Lup shoves her hand back in her jacket pockets and rocks back and forth. “So, Maureen and Lucas Miller. I super don’t think you’re floating around in here as ghosts or anything, but feel free to prove me wrong.” _ _

_ _In the other room, Barry has his ear pressed to the door. “Do you think she’s okay in there?”_ _

_ _Taako examines his nails, unconcerned. “Mhm.”_ _

_ _Lup clears her throat. _ _

_ _“Usually, I’ll say something like, ‘I’m sorry you died so brutally! That really sucks!’ But you… Didn’t? You just died. So I don’t know what reasons you even have to haunt this place. Sorry you died, I guess. That still sucks._ _

_ _“Anyways, my boy Barry is gonna come in here after me. And I need you to me cool to him, okay? He believes in you a whole lot more than I do, and I don’t want you scaring him to death or something. I’d like to keep him around. And not as a ghost or a robot. I would like Barry to keep his flesh body, please.” _ _

_ _She looks curiously around the room. “You, uh… Didn’t choose a very exciting place to die, huh?”_ _

_ _“Okay, Lu! Two minutes are up!” _ _

_ _She salutes the ceiling and pulls out her flashlight. “Well, it was nice talking to you, I guess.”_ _

_ _Barry is already shaking as he opens the door. Lup takes a moment to press a gentle kiss to his cheek as she slips past him. “Just two minutes,” she whispers, “I’ll be right on the other side of the door. Kay?”_ _

_ _“Yeah.” He swallows, hard, and steps into the room. The door closes with a click. He takes a deep breath and turns off his flashlight. _ _

_ _“Timer’s starting, babe!”_ _

_ _For a long moment, Barry just focuses on his breath. He taps anxiously on his thigh as he bounces on his heels. Gradually, his eyes adjust to the inky blackness and he begins to look around the room. _ _

_ _He finds himself face-to-face with _something,_ and he screams. _ _

_ _“Barry? Babe, you okay?”_ _

_ _“Yeah,” he exhales, “yeah, it was just my reflection.”_ _

_ _He forces his body to relax. “I can do this,” he whispers to himself, “It’s less than two minutes. I can do this.” _ _

_ _Then, a little louder, he begins to ramble. “Hi, uh… My name is Barry. I’m really not a fan of the dark, or mirrors, or mirrors in the dark. But I’m here, for some reason. And I’m not talking to you directly, just so you know. Because you’re not supposed to talk to ghosts directly. I don’t want to… invite you in or anything. But if you want to make your presence known, you can. Make something move, or make a sound, or something. I would appreciate it if you didn’t touch me, because that would really freak me out. But if you have no other choice, you could pull my sleeve or something. I _will_ scream, though. So, keep that in mind.”_ _

_ _He hears a quiet thud in the distance. _ _

_ _“Hey, Lup? How much—”_ _

_ _“And time. You’re good, babe.”_ _

_ _Barry doesn’t waste time turning on his flashlight before sprinting to the door. He reaches it just as Lup tugs it open. He envelopes her in a tight hug. _ _

_ _“You okay, babe?”_ _

_ _“Yeah,” he answers, his voice muffled by her jacket, “yeah, that just sucked.”_ _

_ _“You could’ve at least grabbed my camera, Barold,” Taako huffs. He shoves past them to grab his equipment off the table. “Anything we missed, or are we good to go?”_ _

_ _Barry pulls away from Lup but grabs her hand and holds it tightly. “No, that’s everything. I’d like to leave now, please.” _ _

_ _Lup gives his hand a squeeze. “Is there a good way to leave, or do we have to go the way we came?”_ _

_ __“Fuck.”_ Barry groans. “Hey, Miller family? You suck at architecture.” _ _

_ _Lup snorts before heading back towards the robot room. This time, they don’t waste their time communicating with ghosts—they quickly make their way back to the atrium, where they can see the full moon shining through the glass dome above them. _ _

_ _“Alright!” Lup shouts, “Another place cleared! Time to go!”_ _

_ _Barry laughs breathlessly. “Barry Bluejeans one, Miller Labs zero!”_ _

_ _Taako takes one more sweep of the atrium with the camera as they head towards the exit._ _

_ _“What d’you think, Lup?” Barry asks, almost cheerful now that they’re on their way out. “Is Miller Labs haunted?”_ _

_ _Lup laughs. “Absolutely not.” _ _

_ _“Really? Cause I’m pretty sure it is.” _ _

_ _“I guess we’re just gonna have to keep agreeing to disagree, babe.”_ _

_ _“Yeah,” Barry chuckles, “guess we are.”_ _

_ _They exit the building and return to the crisp night air. Once they’re standing back by the concrete sign where they recorded their intro, they stop again. _ _

_ _“Because of the strange circumstances and rumors that surround Miller Labs, there’s no doubt this building has a dark history. I’m not surprised so many people think it’s haunted. And while I myself have no doubt that ghosts roam these halls, it looks like the case of Miller Labs will remain… unsolved.”_ _

**Author's Note:**

> This was my part of an art trade with my good friend Parker! They made me some very, very good art of my D&D character for their half. 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this, and I'm considering a Wonderland sequel? 
> 
> You can find me on twitter @WorldsGayestDM or tumblr @holla-pain-yo
> 
> Don't forget to leave comments and kudos if you liked it! <3


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